People do not live to eat, they eat to live. Businesses should be no different at all.

By: Kamil Toume

If your business is experiencing some frustration in the way it communicates with the world. If your marketing budgets exceed the red lines trying to grab people’s attention to explore your offerings. If you always resort to complicated graphs and a thick pile of papers to understand the downturns. If your staff are unmotivated, dissatisfied and feel empty like life has no meaning. If this is the case, your business lacks one of the main ingredients that keep it healthy and wealthy.

It is the lack of purpose and inability to find meaning and enjoyment in the things that your business brings to life. Finding and articulating your purpose as a leader and communicate it for your business is not a luxury item that is optional to pick up. It is a MUST item that should be first contemplated, examined and carefully answered as the first item or a bullet point on any business plan regardless of the business industry, type, size and country.

Why are we in the market?

What are we trying to achieve, solve and challenge to make a real difference?

Purpose is the main determinant of the success and the failure of any business. Let me remind you here that companies do not have a purpose, their leaders do. Also, companies do not fail, the leaders push them to the edge. You cannot pack your stuff and tell people around you that you are ready to go. Where are you going? And why are you going? If your destination is unknown, why people would risk it and go with you. It is frustrating for all.

People do not live to eat, they eat to live. Profits are very important for the survival of any business, but what your business is living to achieve. It should exist to contribute and lead. This is the main difference between leading and non-leading businesses, namely the leaders and the non-leaders. Leading businesses are led by purposeful leaders who know what they set to achieve outside their organisational boundaries. These leaders inspire movements and empower people because they they have a crystal-clear purpose. Non-leading businesses are led by purposeless people who do not know what they want to achieve. They are unfocused and confused. Their actions are discouraging and misleading. Their communication is also manipulative. Such people view the world from the profits’ lens that do not see people but dollar signs.

If you already embarked on your leadership journey or you want to kick it off, reigniting your purpose is crucial to spark the difference and show your leading advantage, the spark that either inspires people or confuses them. What is your purpose? This question will determine your success or failure in the future. Having decided to be a copy and paste model “ me-too product”, simply ignore this article and have a nice day.